Hamartia
by Inimitable-and-AnOriginal
Summary: When Percy asks everyone what their fatal flaw is, everyone realizes they don't know Leo's. They all end up trying to guess Leo's fatal flaw, though he's not making it easy. The crew ends up learning more about Leo than just how to kill him.
1. Coming Up in Conversation

Summary: When Percy asks everyone what their fatal flaw is, everyone realizes they don't know Leo's. They all end up trying to guess Leo's fatal flaw, though he's not making it easy. The crew ends up learning more about Leo than just how to kill him.

Disclaimer: PJO and HOO both belong to Uncle Rick. I claim no ownership of these characters, nor do I claim ownership or this franchise. I am not deluded and am not under the impression that I am Rick Riordan. Don't sue me.

Chapter 1: Coming up in Conversation

Disclaimer: PJO and HOO both belong to Uncle Rick. I claim no ownership of these characters, nor do I claim ownership or this franchise. I am not deluded and am not under the impression that I am Rick Riordan. Don't sue me.

Chapter 1: Coming up in Conversation

Percy was thinking, asking questions. Though, to be fair, those always ended up being devil's advocate questions, but still. His fatal flaw was loyalty, right?. Annabeth's was pride, Jason's was indecision, Frank's was insecurity, Hazel's was guilt, now that he thought about it, what was Leo's? At first glance, it might seem that it would be pride, he was so confident and determined to make his plans, and was so proud of Festus. But then again, he joked about him not being the best, and readily admitted to messing up. He decided to bring it up in conversation at breakfast.

"Leo, dude, I don't think I ever realized what your fatal flaw was," Percy said, trying to sound confident when he wasn't.

"Oh, trying to kill me now, are we, Jackson?" Leo responded, a cheeky grin on his face, joking with Percy.

"I mean, mine's loyalty, Annabeth's is pride, there are a bunch of different ones. And I'm wondering, what's yours? What's Leo Valdez's fatal flaw?"

"Guess." Leo seemed to be having fun with this. "I mean, I already know what it is, but still. I want to see you guys struggle for a little bit."

"Hubris. Overconfidence. Arrogance. Imprudence." Annabeth started to rapid fire suggestions that seemed to fit Leo, but wouldn't the moment someone got to know him. Leo wasn't any of those things, he just acted that way to help ease everyone and the tension and stress of their long journey.

"Inability to take anything seriously," Hazel jokingly added, grabbing some food before joining the others at the breakfast table.

"Being a sociopath," Frank said, shrugging his shoulders. He wasn't insulting Leo, he didn't like how Leo acted so indifferent about the hardships that they faced. And how he kept making him the butt of his jokes.

"Humor," Piper remarked.

"How is that a flaw?" Asked Percy. How could humor be bad? All it was to make someone laugh, well I guess you could end up offending someone. Yeah, humor could be a flaw, but how was someone inherently funny? Or maybe they thought they were funny? But then wouldn't the people around them tell them to stop? What about sarcastic humor-?

"I didn't know you actually thought this stuff through," Annabeth jested. Did he say that out loud?

"No, no, no, no, thank you, Hazel I'm touched but it's still no. Really, Frank, you think so low of me? Annabeth, I'll have you know that there isn't a situation that can't be defused using humor! None of you have gotten even close." Leo said. "How are you guys supposed to guess this if you have no idea! I'll give you guys a week."

Annabeth's eyes narrowed, she loved challenges. "Bet you I can do it in one day."

"Okay. Anybody else?"

"I'll try." Jason volunteered, maybe he could learn more about his friend. Leo didn't really tell them that much about him.


	2. The Challenge Countinues

**A/N: Okay, I didn't expect this to have as much positive feedback in such a short time! I'm completely new to writing this stuff, but am not new to this fandom, so I hope I won't make stupid mistakes. Please tell me whether I screwed something up, grammatically or plot-wise (making character OOC, the like), so I can fix it. I'm also trying to make chapters longer, because under a thousand words in a chapter is pathetic…**

Disclaimer: I used to hate these, I used to think 'get on with the story!'. I still do. Just noting that I'm not Rick Riordan, and these characters are of his own creation. Don't sue me.

Chapter 2: The Challenge Continues

Annabeth refused to let this die. She knew all there was to know about Leo, right? He was cocky, sarcastic at times, always had their backs, he reminded her a lot of Percy, maybe his flaw reflected in that? By looking at Percy and watching him, you could never tell that he was incredibly loyal, but he did show it through not bullying others, and not being a huge jerk. It was also shown through him protecting his friends. Maybe she could find Leo's in a similar way?

"Loyalty? You do seem to treat us with integrity, and you're incredibly focused when working. I can't imagine you betraying us. Actually, on that note, maybe your fatal flaw is being hard-working?" Annabeth had visited his room after she had finished her patrol, Leo being crammed in the wall, working hard on….something. She wasn't quite sure what, but she knew that it was something that Leo was invested in because it took him a while to answer.

"No. You pointed out one thing I did because of it though. Nice try." Leo replied, poking his head out of the wall to give her his signature joker's grin, like he knew something that she didn't. In this case, that was true.

"Overworking yourself?" Annabeth tried again, Leo did seem to throw himself into his work. She actually didn't know how much sleep he got when they were working on the Argo construction.

"You already said that," He was smarter than he looked, giving her a deadpan look before resuming to work on what seemed to be a new upgrade to the ship. He stuck his head back into the wall, and the conversation was over.

-Line Break-

Jason wasn't faring better either, he had no idea where to start. Despite being with him from the start, he really couldn't think of one flaw that Leo had, and certainly not one that would be fatal. He was joking, yes, but he also knew when a situation was too dark for a joke, or when he wasn't being helpful, his humor was used to help people rather than hurt them.

Leo was also very determined, Jason remembered when Leo threw himself into making the Argo II, looking back on it, Jason didn't think that Leo had slept very much. He also remembered Leo's face when Festus was crashing down. His eyes, they were so intent on restoring Festus, Leo almost didn't notice the ground.

But how could determination be a flaw? Jason consulted Piper about this during their break. "He never seems to stop working, never seems to lose sight of what needs to be done. But how could his determination be used against him?"

"Yes, he is driven. Maybe if he overworked himself?" Piper was unsure of what was going on, having slept in that morning. She would ask Leo later.

During lunch, Annabeth bombarded Leo with even more potential fatal flaws. "Optimism, overworking yourself, maybe bravery? No, placing your work before you."

"Determination," Jason said, adding to the conversation as they sat on deck, the wind whistling behind them. Everyone had brought their plates outside, and were sitting together. Hazel was feeling seasick, so stood by the balcony, but other than that, all of them were eating lunch together.

"You're getting colder," Leo answered, smiling at them. He seemed to be milking this for all it was worth. The happy-go-lucky Leo had found entertainment. It was a boring trip after all.

Annabeth seemed to backtrack, going back to what she originally thought of. "Overconfidence. Inability to empathize?"

"You're going in the opposite direction. And those were already said."

"Guilt?" Jason asked, because he was curious now.

"No, what makes you think that?" Leo was now wondering too. How well did his friends know him?

"You seem obligated to help us. Like we're better than you."

Percy didn't know why his challenge was still going, but it was better than just waiting around for a monster to attack. He was already feeling foggy-elevator from the attack by, was it squids this time? He had used up all of his mental capacity getting the squids to listen. Anyway, with God's waiting for them to do their 'duty' as demigods, to protect the all-powerful gods from actually being productive, Percy didn't want to limit himself to just that.

It was entirely and completely unfair.

"Those two are synonyms, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth said, as if teaching a kindergartener the ABC's. He really was out of the loop.

"How is that bet you're doing with Leo going? Have you guessed it yet?" He was interested, there was usually nothing Annabeth could figure out.

"No, I can't seem to find a pattern. Leo is hiding something from us. Something that I think, I related to his fatal flaw. Why else would it take such a long time?" Annabeth ranted to Percy, and he just tuned it out. Annabeth was like that sometimes, she just needed to release all of her pent up questions. All of the Athena kids were like that, Percy knew.

"I can't figure it out either," Hazel added, passing them in the hallway. She and Frank had linked arms, and Frank stopped too. Nico wasn't too far behind.

"He fakes his laughs," Frank says, as if it were obvious.

"How would you know?" Questioned Nico. "I mean, yeah, he acts differently than how he treats us, so he could be faking it, but why?"

"I have experience." Frank left it at that. He remembered what he was like when his mom had died. He still was like that, wondering when he would feel like he could laugh, be happy, when she wasn't here.

"Why don't we confront him? It's not like we have anything better to do, and this is really gnawing at me." Hazel suggested, trying to lighten the mood. She tried, Percy would give her that, but they still were left with melancholy wondering.

Why did Leo need to hide this?


	3. Confrontation

**A/N: Thank you so much to all of my readers' for their wonderful existence. This is a truly awesome community of people. Remember, every time you review, a kitten is reincarnated from the dead and sent to authors to make their day. Keep Nico di Angelo busy giving authors ghost kittens. Or would they be skeleton kittens? Or maybe zombie kittens.**

 **Keep Nico di Angelo busy making a zombie horde of kittens to attack local authors near you. Review your stories.**

Disclaimer: I'm not a fake twitter account posting controversial things to confuse the fandom. Still not Rick. Don't sue me.

Chapter 3: Confrontation

Leo was unsure of how to continue. On the one hand, he had just created the best entertainment since pranking Hazel about the modern world. On the other hand, he was very close to revealing the one thing that he promised himself he wouldn't do, _stupid_ Valdez.

Take deep breaths. Remember what she said. Take deep breaths, count to ten.

But it was all good. Right? They didn't know about that. They didn't know that they were better than him in every single way. They didn't know that they were ultimate perfection for the sole reason that they didn't beat themselves up for every single mistake. Percy had ADHD, look how well he could save the world. He wasn't _stupid_ , he wasn't an _idiot_ who messed up _every single thing_ about the prophecy.

 _Calm down Valdez._ Stupid little thing, can't even function by yourself.

There they came now. It was all going to be over. Sooner or later. It was all going to be over, and then they would either accept him or reject him. Like it always went. Except, Leo was kidding himself. No-one wanted him. No-one wanted the factory reject, tainted with talent that smart people should wield, cursed with potential that better people deserve.

And that's why he worked. And how he worked. He tested, and tried, and designed, and welded, and soldered, all to prove that he was worth it. And it was never enough. He would always find a way to derail all of his accomplishments in a matter of seconds. 'That part's wrong.' 'That could use improvement.' No matter how nicely he tried to phrase it to himself, he always would berate himself. He would always find something wrong.

His stupid fatal flaw? Inferiority. Well, not the act of being inferior, but the principle of thinking he was. The idiotic notion that he was less. Yes, he knew it in his head, but deep down, he knew he was a disappointment.

Percy's fatal flaw was loyalty. How much more noble can you get? He was such a good person, his fatal flaw was literally that he valued his friends over the world.

Annabeth's fatal flaw was pride. She made and designed much better things than Leo, she had so much self-confidence, she didn't act like a snob either. She had things to be proud of.

Indecision. That was Jason's fatal flaw. Whether to ruin Percy's life or Leo's? Whether to be perfect in the Greek camp or the Roman camp? No, Jason was too nice and chivalrous for that. He wouldn't stoop that low.

Frank's was, or used to be, insecurity. He was so humble over himself, he didn't notice how muscular he was, how easily he destroyed all those monsters, saved the seven's lives countless times. Even if Frank's fatal flaw was kind of ridiculous, it was better, and he actually got over it. 'Unlike some people I know.' Piper's was the same.

Hazel? Hazel's fatal flaw was the most human and perfect thing in the world. Guilt. Her fatal flaw existed because she was a good person, and because she cared about her actions, and reflected on their consequences.

All Leo did was fix things, things that only he broke in the first place. Everything was his fault. It would be, wouldn't it, when trapped with children of divinity. The lesser was always to blame.

-LineBreak-

They had searched the entire ship for him. Leo wasn't in the engine room, where they had originally thought he would be, half-hidden in a wall, using his toolbelt to make creations out of nothing.

He wasn't in his cabin room, designing and sketching, now that they looked at it, very detailed blueprints of the chicken-nugget smokescreen Leo had joked about earlier. There were also models of ship parts, and pieces of scrap paper filled with proportions and equations and observations. In short, Leo's desk was messy, but Leo was more proactive than they had all thought. Just one thing of many that they were wrong about with him.

Leo wasn't wandering the halls, he wasn't on deck, he wasn't on a balcony. He wasn't steering the ship using the Wii controller, which Annabeth logged onto to find that Leo had shortened the entire ships command using Javascript onto the simple buttons of the controller.

Leo wasn't even on the mast, checking Festus' head, or looking out from the crow's nest, shouting 'Land ho!' randomly, and other pirate sayings.

"I made tacos for dinner!" Of course, Leo was going to be in the one place they expected him the least. The kitchen, where he had spent one hour there prior to the seven's knowledge. But apparently, everything about Leo was off. He had sound excited speaking, but the smile didn't quite reach his eyes. Little observations like that. Frank took a bunch.

Leo was making tacos, a food that he almost never made unless they had fought a hard battle, it was a comfort food. He also called out with energy, but when they went into the kitchen, he seemed down before noticing the others and perking up a bit. Leo also was very interested in cooking, measuring out everything, and not looking up to say hello to the seven. He was very uncharacteristic.

"Hey Leo, we were wondering-" Hazel started before being cut off by the sound of a frying pan. Apparently, you needed one of those to make tacos. Frank wasn't convinced.

"Leo, dude, it's nearly the end of the day-" Jason tried again, but he stopped mid-sentence when he noticed Leo wasn't even listening to him. The others just sat down at the table, hoping to get this over with.

After watching Leo struggle making the food that he seemed to love, Nico walked into the room, immediately spotted what Leo was doing, and looked at him with calculatingly. Recognition entered Nico's eyes as he understood what Leo was doing, and he looked...Pitiful? Why was Nico looking like that towards Leo? Frank never understood him.

"Leo Valdez, I demand that we know what your fatal flaw is," Piper spoke up, charmspeak flowing into her words, every crevice. Frank already felt his tumble out of him, and heard many others do the same. Not Leo though.

"Me? I'm sure you can take a stab at it. It's still not the end of the day," Leo bit his bottom lip, but his eyes were calm, in the sense he knew he was in control.

"Mania."

"Guilt."

"Lack of self-care."

"Bravery."

"Putting others before yourself."

"Curiosity." They all said their guesses, well except for Nico. He looked Leo straight in the eye and gave him a knowing look. Frank was really tired of those.

"Superiority," Nico said. Leo looked at him with a manic expression, his eyes glinted with hilarity. He laughed humorlessly. It was bone-chilling to hear the usually happy Leo laughing like he knew the pains of the world. When he usually acted so immature, the world to him held no bounds.

The scariest thing? This laugh was genuine. This laugh, was real.


	4. And the Truth Came Tumbling Out

A/N: Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend. Thank you all again for reading and reviewing, it always makes my day. I apologize for not updating on weekends, that just doesn't seem like something I will be doing in the future, as a 'break'. Also, it's really nice to have something to look forward to on Mondays (or Tuesdays now, sorry for not updating).

Disclaimer: This is being written by a fan, to tell a fanmade story thought up by a fan, for fans. Not Rick Riordan. I claim no rights to his work. Don't sue me.

Chapter 4: And the Truth Came Tumbling Out

Percy was scared.

Not, 'I'm about to die' scared. No, 'wait until this horror show has passed' scary. 'Why is my friend acting possessed' scary. And seeing Leo like that. It felt so natural, for him to be laughing like that. For him to be in pain.

"Why are you laughing like that?" Percy just had to ask, he was curious.

"Leo, you're scaring us," Hazel said, there was a tremble in her voice. Piper looked ready to murder Leo.

"I swear, if you and you stupid eidolon friends have come onto ship, I will personally carry out murder threats down to the deepest parts of Tartarus, and you will never see the light of day ever again." Piper said, drops of determination and charmspeak flooding her words. Percy was now frightened of her too, Piper seemed to fully intend to carry out her threat.

"Piper, jeaze. I'm not possessed or anything, I just find it really funny that Nico, out of all of you-" Annabeth cut Leo off, looking at him strangely.

"Would have known it?"

"Yes," Leo said, but left it at that, leaving Annabeth to come to her own conclusions.

"Inferiority. Wait, no, feeling inferior, not actually being inferior."

"Bingo," Leo said with a smile, a small one, but it seemed realer than the hundreds he gave everyday. He looked relieved, like he could almost get it off his chest. But he also looked hurt, as if the weight of the words he just said was sinking in on him.

-Line Break-

Why did he tell them? Why did he agree to this stupid challenge in the first place? They would have figured it out, Nico already did a long time ago, but he never thought as to what would come afterwards.

Typical, Valdez. Not thinking about the consequences of your actions, be for or against you. Now he would have to go into his tragic backstory, and they would be all sappy for him. Or they would just kick him out, realizing that he was right, that he was inferior, no matter how much he tried to change it.

"Oh, Leo, why didn't you tell us?" Hazel, or is it Piper, asks. Leo isn't too sure now. The world was being pulled from under his feet, like a carpet, leaving the bare concrete for him to fall down on break his tailbone. He would fall, hard.

"Like you'd want to hear a sob story." Yes, even he knew it was uncalled for, and the way he said it, with such bitterness, it's a wonder that his friends didn't abandon him right then and there. No, they were dragging this out.

His friends gave him pleading looks. He relented. "Fine, you guys are all perfect and amazing and noble and kind and I'm stuck here being the mechanic." He was so lucky Coach Hedge wasn't here, he would have either laughed at him, or chewed him out for believing himself about this. Both of which were reasonable. Leo knew he had a problem, he was even agreeing with Coach Hedge of all people.

"Leo, you're not worse than us. Why do you feel that way?" Leo didn't even catch who said it. Of course they wouldn't believe him. Who in their right mind would? No, Leo was right, they were perfect, he was an imperfection.

The words rolled off his tongue like snowballs rolling down a hill, getting bigger and rolling faster, until he wasn't even certain he was speaking anymore. But, like any good snowball, the ball of snow would soon become an avalanche of problems that he could have easily avoided had he kept this to himself, had he kept the snowball from rolling down the hill. He could have just dismissed Percy in the beginning, said something along the lines of "I don't even know what it is."

Yeah, that's something the joker Leo would say. He would push it away as if it weren't the most kept guarded secret. But this wasn't the mask that Leo hid behind. This was who he was, even though it didn't feel like it.

Maybe this was another mask, one that he had placed on so many times that it subconsciously became a part of him. This was the Leo that was inferior, not because he was incompetent, or because he lacked anything that his friends had, but because he felt that he was less than.

Maybe this was a mask that needed to be taken off too.

-Line Break-

Piper was surprised, angry, and worried. She was surprised at how well Leo did to fight her charmspeak, she was angry at how he did it as well, and she was worried that she wouldn't have an effective weapon against the others. Of course, she was also surprised at how well Leo acted, angry at how she didn't notice it sooner, and worried that she might not catch people faking her next time.

Then again, she was surprised at how hard Leo had it. He seemed to completely shatter the moments his mouth opened. His words became slurred, syllables mixed and his speech was mixed with Spanish and English. It hardly made sense to her, but the important thing was that Leo was sharing.

She was angry at herself, along with Leo, didn't he trust them? If they were going to defeat Gaea, they wouldn't keep secrets from each other, right?

-Line Break-

Frank was understanding, to say the least, of Leo's predicament. It was not the first time this experience was brought upon anybody, and it was nice to let one's feelings out every once in awhile. Frank remembered telling Hazel about his piece of firewood, that was probably the most uplifting moment of his life, before mom died, of course.

But now? Frank wasn't sure whether Leo was speaking, or a three year old was possessing him. But it didn't matter. What mattered was that the seven, and Nico, were together, and that their friend was finally letting out all of these thoughts. "You guys all have these problems, and th-, Jason wouldn't stop, natural leade-, could always be better, never go-, nothin' good, always fixin' what I broke...n't a hero..." The half-started sentences kept going, but at this point even Frank was having a hard time keeping up. If this was what the world was like in Leo's eyes, how did he focus on anything? Frank thought in amazement about how focused Leo was, and how determined he was, and how confident, how good at acting he was…

And Frank then realized why Leo was good at these things. Why his actions lead to his fatal flaw. He was good at acting and being determined because he had to be, not because of training, or anything like that. He was good at being confident, and lightening up other people's spirits because everyone else needed it. He never thought about himself, did he? All his actions...They were about helping others.

"What makes you think you're any less of hero than any of us?"

-Line Break-

He was running out of words that meant stupid. Stupid. Moron. Idiot. Dumb. Lame. Unintelligent. Waste of potential. It didn't matter though, he was talking too fast to think about things like that. "You guys have all these problems," and he was too stupid, or slow to keep up. They kept pushing forward, whether it was with the prophecy, or in battles with monsters, and he was falling behind, not pulling his share. There were eighteen shifts in being the look-out for monsters every day, and Leo was only signed up for three. There was an engine that needed to be maintained, a ship that needed to be steered, and he needed his friends to be happy. He wasn't doing any of that, was he? "And th-",-en he would let everyone down. They were talking about him right now instead of focusing on the real problems. They were leaving their important demigod duties to talk to the lowly mechanic. "Jason wouldn't stop" being helpful, he was a "natural leade-", -r, he kept the balance in their first mission, knew exactly what to do and what to say. He was who Calypso fell for, Leo was a reminder of what she deserved, not what she got. He "could always be better", he could always improve, try to be better than himself, but he failed miserably every time. He would never catch up. He was "never go-", -ing to make it. He would never stop, until he was perfect, or, at the very least, good enough. He was a failure, doing "nothin' good", and messing everything up. He was "always fixin' what I broke", not once helping another person. Just because they were better than him doesn't mean that they didn't want or need help. He was"n't a hero", just some weak god's mistake.

Leo didn't even realize how much he was speaking, and how much he was sharing. The only thing that cut him out of his jarring thoughts wer- "What makes you think you're any less of a hero than any of us?"

Leo stopped thinking. His mind was mute.

There were no thoughts.

Just, silence.

-Line Break-

Frank made a mistake, didn't he? He just had to ask that. The walls were closing in on him, everyone was looking at him, big, strong Frank, whom everyone counts on but nobody actually believes has feelings, or at the very least, a sense of what's going on. But that wasn't important right now. Frank hugged Leo.

It wasn't the manliest of hugs, he would admit that. But he wasn't alone. The rest of the seven all squashed Frank and Leo. Leo cried onto Frank's shoulder. Other people's tears were shed, but Frank hardly noticed.

-Line Break-

Leo was crying, and that was okay.

Everything was okay. It didn't matter anymore. Nothing mattered anymore. They were all going to sail off into the distant sunset, and everyone would be sappy and then the monster that fed off of happine-

Okay, maybe he had some work to do, but it was fine. He didn't notice that Frank had rushed up and hugged him. Just that he was crying.

-Line Break-

Nico refrained from hugging. It was not something that he liked to do, but he knew now that he was probably being insensitive. Leo was crying, and the rest of the seven were getting teary eyed. Percy and Jason were bawling into each other's chests, gods, Nico didn't know how to handle those two. Piper was silently crying, mostly towards herself, she didn't blame herself, did she?

But Hazel was looking at the rest of the group distantly, probably reminiscing about something. She looked nostalgic. Nico didn't know what was going on inside her head. Maybe he just let her remember placidly. The only sound that could be heard were people thoughts, emotions, roaring inside their heads. And sniffling, shaking of shoulders, though it was all serene to Nico. He turned away, and went to man the steering wheel. Something was going to attack, and he knew it.

As he walked away, nobody, not even himself, noticed a small drop of water, trickling down his face. He walked on.


	5. Epilogue

**A/N: I'm alive! Hooray! I mean, it's only been about 6 months but...progress is progress…?**

 **I have to address some 'thank you's, but that will be at the end, when there's finally an ending to this, and for all you guys, who won't have to scroll through a five page Author's Note. Been there, seen that, NEVER doing those A/N's at the beginning of a chapter.**

 **I would just like to say a few things. One, I noticed this while writing the epilogue, and would just like to ask you guys to just-read through the thing from beginning to end. See how much better it gets? This was in the span of one week, people. One week of me churning out a plot, and reading the first chapter, and the last chapter, you can see the difference. And that's the main reason (along with a serious writing motivation problem) (Code for: 'I love this but can't seem to buckle down and actually write it') I won't be rewriting the first few chapters. But, I'll probably be doing some cleanup. The gods know this fic needs it.**

 **Two, (I promised this wasn't going to be long, but…) someone *cough* ThePendragonQueen *cough* wrote a little one-shot inspired by my work. (could it be classified as fanfiction of fanfiction? I feel like that's giving me too much credit)I'm super proud, and thank them for doing so.**

 **Three, I know nothing about repairing boats. Sue me.**

 **Four, I've fixed some of the line breaks, it's annoying that I can't do it on , but, *sigh* I try.**

Disclaimer: You've probably seen this a million times. Doesn't matter, still doing it. I do not claim to be Rick Riordan nor do I claim to have ownership of his creations. Even though this disclaimer means nothing in a court of law, it eases my conscience. Please support Rick Riordan and all the amazing work he does. Even if I silently pretend TOA isn't canon. And Magnus Chase isn't in the Percy Jackson universe.

Chapter 5: The (long awaited) Epilogue

Leo was feeling...better.., though he still couldn't say he was _good_ , because being _good_ usually implies that you have a good well-being, good mental health, and a good situation.

None of which Leo had.

So, he wasn't good, but he definitely was better. And maybe that's what he could hope for.

Because if he was always getting better, he was eventually going to be good.

Or watch his progress crash and burn.

' _What did I say about getting philosophical on me?'_ Leo angrily thought to himself as he was stuck halfway in a wall. Again. Man, why couldn't he just make an access panel, so he wouldn't have to go through this weird mechanical reboot while being unable to see whether someone was sneaking up behind him. It scared the living Tartarus out of him!

"How are the..what are you working on again?" She asked, while Leo just jumped a foot into the air. He, of course, banged his head on the top of the very cramped and very small space between the hull and the rubber thing that steered the ship. He couldn't remember the name, but he didn't have time to think because ' _Hazel, never do that again.'_

"They're okay, I mean, the communications line is down, which means that Festus can't control this area of the ship automatically, so somebody has to go down here and fix it, lucky me, and you just scared the living Hades out of me. Which means that I probably have to get my head treatment in the medical wing, with all of you 'supervising', because you guys seriously don't trust me to handle this myself, and you guys probably have better things to do..." Leo's voice trailed off, and poked his head out of the wall while simultaneously shimmying the rest of his body out. "And I did it again." He feigned shame, but failed miserably, and the lie fell flat.

"That's okay, it's better than it was before," Hazel said, quirking her lips up in a small smile at Leo's facade. After the event that made Leo's flaw known, they had tried to help him; and he improved, though some things took more work than others. He still had thoughts, and that probably was never going to change, but the group was helping him get better.

Not necessarily good, but better.

Frank was sitting on deck, a paper plate in his hand with the best comfort food the ship had to offer. Leo's tacos always helped the team out when they were feeling down, and sometimes it was nice to have some semblance of order in their messed up world.

They all sat in a ring, telling stories and laughing at jokes, and overall enjoying the placid atmosphere. Frank remembered when he told the

As for the rest of the group, the sane people, they were all sitting in a circle, and left a space for Frank. Percy and Jason were outliers, bickering by the mast, but the group couldn't hear them over the wind. Frank was recalling the past few months, when he had come open about his fatal flaw, and the group had welcomed him with open arms. What shouldn't have surprised him (but still did), was that Leo was the most accepting, and stopped making jokes at his expense.

Annabeth had opened up about her fatal flaw as well, telling the group stories about a man who promised her that she would rebuild the world. Hazel joined in, telling the legend of a ghost from the past that followed her like a shadow. Piper responded with the tale of a demon that hid behind mirrors, her mind, and people's judgement. Percy weaved a myth of the boy who destroyed the world for his friends. Soon, they were all telling 'campfire stories', all of them seemingly so far away yet hitting too close to home.

Their fatal flaws may have once been deadly, however, they gave each other time to heal, and ways to help. Each helped with different problems, the seven reminding Leo that 'of course he was worth it', and they came to rely on one another to cover their weaknesses.

They were stronger together than apart.

 **A/N: Okay, here's all of the thank you stuff. If you've read this far, and aren't really interested, you can read on. May you find well-written fanfiction as you leave this story behind.**

 **Onto the thank yous (glorified typing of names)!**

 **Those who favorited this story. Thank you to everyone who considered this story worthy enough to be considered a favorite (or at least something of value)! It really is appreciated and cherished, every single one, and it means a lot to me. (okay I know I'm reading of the stats page but I do get notifications for each and every favorite I still appreciate them I just can't be bothered to find out a different order) Thank you to Amethyst Crystal, Athena Minerva Artemis Bellona, Bb9150, Candymouse22, DWGolondor, Dawnbreak55, Edogawa Sakura, FierySapphire, , Geccarenne13, IWishUCouldGoAway, JetRavenOnyx, LeoVlover (you and me both), Leyall99, LoyalTheorist, MaiKanon, MichaelLukeSkyWalker, Murderder, Ru Svenbill, Shika Valdez, SkyeWhoFlies, SnapDragon754, Sparklesareawesome, Time-traveler210, Tobi said it-Deidara did it, Willow Lark, Yelowsy, glodkies, jerrrina, masie al, mlpfim123451101, nerdycook24, percabethclaceforever, ravenclawwarrior97, shadow4121, thatarchitect, ultimatebern25, and yazbk2988 for favoriting this story (at the time of writing this author's note.**

 **Those who followed this story. Thank you to everyone who wanted more of this story, even though the epilogue was so late. I hope this satisfies your hunger, even though it was less than a usual update. Again, individual thanks, so thank you to Amethyst Crystal, Bb9150, Bianca Wisteria, Champion of the Primordials, DWGolondor, Dawnbreak55, FierySapphire, , Geccarenne13, Gigicomics, Heroesofolympuslover (same), KuroDeity (still working on the story and promise, haven't forgotten it!), Luna Space, MarethyuQ, Murderder, SisterOfTheBrotherhood, SnapDragon754, Sparklesareawesome, ThePendragonQueen, Willow Lark, Yelowsy, 117, glodkies, jerrrina, lpeetz22, mlpfim123451101, nerdycook24, percabethclaceforever, shadow4121, ultimatebern25, and yazbk2988 for following this story, and sticking with it to the very end.**

 **Those who left a review. Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed this story! While I do like seeing views, favorites, and follows, reviews are just a little more special for me. Whenever possible, do review a story, the author really appreciates the feedback! Thank you to everyone who reviewed, and if I haven't sent you a reply, I will Get On That.**

 **A reminder to be an awesome person today guys. I hope you find some great stuff as you click out of this webpage. Remember to come back in another 6 months to see if I have anything new. Thanks.**


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